The BEST Regular Nail Polishes 💅

I did my mom’s nails the other week using some of my favorite regular polishes and it really reignited my love for it!! Even though I love and mostly wear gel, I still do love my trusty regular polish from time to time, and it’s always nice to have options when it comes to doing your own nails. So this post is going to feature four of my favorite types of regular polish plus my new favorite ridge filler/base coat, and a few of my picks for holiday colors (and some are on sale!).

Essie To The Rescue:

The Details: This is my new favorite product to recommend for nails that are damaged from gel or just feeling weak in general!

• It’s formulated with ceramides and proteins to help heal damaged nails

• The actual consistency of the polish is thicker which seals peeling nails to protect against splitting

• Gives nails a plumper finish almost like applying builder gel without any of the hassle of actually applying builder gel

• For that last reason, I really like it for a ridge filler too!

I used this on my mom for this manicure and I think it really made the red polish on top look nice and smooth. She actually loves this product so much, I gave her a bottle of it earlier this year and she’s already onto her second one!

How To Wear It: Apply it directly to bare, prepped nails. You can apply it as an even, first layer as your base coat before applying more polish. Or you can apply 2-3 coats for that slightly thicker, builder gel type of look and then apply a top coat for a nice sheer pink manicure with added benefits!

Essie Gel Couture:

The Details:

• A two step polish system with a color gel (with a built in base coat, although you can totally wear the Essie To The Rescue polish above as a base coat!), and a top coat that work together to give you a long lasting manicure

• Essie claims you can get up to 15 days of wear with this polish, but I would probably recommend adding another layer of top coat around day 5-7 to try to get to that goal!

I love this polish sooo much personally because it’s a really nice long lasting formula without being too thick to dry properly! It’s like a happy medium between the Olive & June Long Lasting formula and their Quick Dry formula if you’re familiar with them but it does really last super well. I actually love the Gel Couture Top Coat so much and I’ll use it with other brands too because it dries pretty fast while being super shiny and long lasting at the same time!

How To Wear It: Apply it directly to bare, prepped nails. Or apply a layer of Essie To The Rescue as your base coat and let it dry for a few mins. Then apply 2-3 even coats of color polish, letting each layer dry for 5ish minutes before moving on. Then apply a nice even layer of the top coat and let it dry for 10-15 mins (I am always erring on the side of trying to wait as long as possible before moving on with your day with regular polish! You can never be too careful!)

My Favorite Colors: Sheer Fantasy, Bubbles Only, Caviar Bar

See all of my favorite colors here!

Olive & June Long Lasting:

Ps - Olive & June is having their annual 25% off sale right now!!! Use code SALE25 to save!

The Details:

• A two step polish system with a color gel (with a built in base coat), and a glossy top coat that work together to give you a long lasting manicure

• Thicker formula than the Essie GC above!

• Up to 10+ days of wear

I love Olive & June’s range of colors, they truly have so many it’s almost overwhelming lol. I reallyyyy love their sheers (I wrote a blog post here about my favorite sheer polishes). And they come out with new collections frequently so there’s always something new! I really like their top coat because it’s thicker and will give nails a look that’s most similar to gel without being gel. Because it’s thicker, it does take a little more time to dry so it’s very important to be patient!

How To Wear It: Apply it directly to bare, prepped nails. Then apply 2-3 even coats of color polish, letting each layer dry for 5ish minutes before moving on. Then apply a nice even layer of the top coat and let it dry for 10-15 mins!

My Favorite Colors (since there are so many, these are my favorite for the holidays/winter!): The Queen Takes Her Tea With Milk, Strawberry Scone, Budget? What Budget?, Cosmic, Into The Trees, XOXO, Secret Recipe

See more of my favorite colors here!

Olive & June Quick Dry:

Ps - Olive & June is having their annual 25% off sale right now!!! Use code SALE25 to save!

The Details:

• A two step polish system with a color gel (with a built in base coat), and a quick dry top coat that work together to give you a quick drying manicure

• Thinner formula that dries in about 60 seconds

• Up to 5 days of wear

I loveee using this on my toes because it looks great and dries so fast so it won’t smudge when you need to put socks on!

How To Wear It: Apply it directly to bare, prepped nails. Then apply 2-3 even coats of color polish, letting each layer dry for 1-2ish minutes before moving on. Then apply a nice even layer of the top coat and let it dry for 5 mins! I know it says it’ll be dry in 1 minute, but I still like to wait a little extra time before touching things!

My Favorite Colors: Sandy, Potpurri, Fragola, Picante

Dazzle Dry:

The Details:

• A four step system that completely dries in 5 minutes!! It’s actually magical

• You really need to follow the steps and use the products in order for it to work as intended

• Lasts for 7+ days

They have mini kits if you’re interested in trying the brand out, and I actually like them because the formula of the polish is quick drying, so I personally think it’s nice to just go through an entire mini bottle vs having a large bottle dry out on you (which can happen - they literally sell a product to thin out their polishes if they get goopy)!

How To Wear It: Prep nails and apply the nail prep solution. Then apply base coat and let it fully dry. Each coat will change from shiny to matte once it’s dry so you’ll know when to move on! Apply 2-3 coats of color and let dry fully and then apply the top coat which will dry shiny!

If you follow the steps correctly, the polish will be fully dry in 5 minutes, like no denting or smooshing AT ALL! I did a collaboration with them recently where they challenged me to paint my nails and then do regular things right after so I made lunch, ate chips out of the bag, picked veggies in my garden and tied my shoes and my nails literally looked perfect!! It’s the closest dry time to gel that I’ve ever tried. So cool!!

I’ve only tried a couple of their colors, but they have over 150+ to choose from!!

See all of my regular polish recommendations here!

Let me know if you have any questions or need any color recommendations!!

Next week’s email will be alllll about Black Friday nail sales :) I’m so excited to shop!! Also, let me know if there’s anything you have questions about or want to see for sale info!

Ok, BYE! 💋